Don Quixote
Cervantes's two-part novel (1605 and 1615) follows an ageing gentleman who becomes a knight-errant, and his squire Sancho Panza.
- Author
- Miguel de Cervantes
- First published
- 1605
- Setting
- Spanish Golden Age
- Genre
- Satire, novel
- Read it if you like
- Comic adventures, shaky reality and a very modern sense of humour.
- On screen and stage
- Man of La Mancha (1965 musical) and many films
Overview
Alonso Quijano reads so many chivalric romances that he decides to become a knight, calling himself Don Quixote of La Mancha. With his squire Sancho Panza he sets out, mistaking inns for castles and windmills for giants. Part two, published ten years later, has the characters aware of the first book's success.
Themes
- Illusion and reality
- Idealism and common sense
- Literature about literature
- Friendship
Background
Miguel de Cervantes published the first part in 1605 and the second in 1615, a year before his death. It is often called the first modern novel.
Why it endures
The idealist and his practical companion became a model for countless pairs in fiction, and “tilting at windmills” is still an idiom.
Quotes
En un lugar de la Mancha, de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme, no ha mucho tiempo que vivía un hidalgo de los de lanza en astillero, adarga antigua, rocín flaco y galgo corredor.
Translation: In a village of La Mancha, whose name I prefer not to recall, there lived not long ago a gentleman of the kind who keep a lance in the rack, an old shield, a lean horse and a greyhound for racing.